The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 eBook

“Bhishma said, ’Issuing out of the city,
Amva reflected sorrowfully in this strain. ’There
is not in the whole world a young woman in such a
miserable plight as I! Alas, destitute of friends,
I am rejected by Salwa also! I cannot go back
to the city named after an elephant, for I was permitted
by Bhishma to leave that city, expectant of Salwa!
Whom then shall I blame? Myself? Or, the
invincible Bhishma? Or, that foolish father of
mine who made arrangements for my self-choice?
Perhaps, it is my own fault! Why did I not leap
down before from Bhishma’s car, when that fierce
battle took place, for coming to Salwa? That I
am so afflicted now, as if deprived of my senses,
is the fruit of that omission of mine! Cursed
be Bhishma! Cursed be my own wretched father of
foolish understanding, who had arranged prowess to
be my dower, sending me out as if I were a woman (disposed)
for a consideration! Cursed be myself! Cursed
be king Salwa himself and cursed be my creator too!
Cursed be they through whose fault such great misery
hath been mine! Human beings always suffer what
is destined for them. The cause, however, of my
present affliction is Bhishma, the son of Santanu;
I, therefore, see that at present my vengeance should
fall upon him, either through ascetic austerities
or by battle, for he is the cause of my woe! But
what king is there that would venture to vanquish
Bhishma in battle? Having settled this, she issued
out of the city for repairing to an asylum of the
high-souled ascetics of virtuous deeds. The night
she stayed there, surrounded by those ascetics.
And that lady of sweet smiles told those ascetics,
O Bharata, all that had happened to herself with the
minutest details, O mighty-armed one, about her abduction,
and her rejection by Salwa.’

“There lived in that asylum an eminent Brahmana
of rigid vows, and his name was Saikhavatya.
Endued with ascetic merit of a high order, he was a
preceptor of the scriptures and the Aranyakas.
And the sage Saikhavatya, of great ascetic merit,
addressed that afflicted maiden, that chaste girl
sighing heavily in grief, and said, ’If it hath
been so, O blessed lady, what can high-souled ascetics
residing in their (woody) retreats and engaged in
penances do?’ That maiden, however, O king, answered
him, saying, ’Let mercy be shown to me; I desire
a life in the woods, having renounced the world.
I will practise the severest of ascetic austerities.
All that I now suffer is certainly the fruit of those
sins that I had committed from ignorance in my former
life. I do not venture to go back to my relatives,
ye ascetics, rejected and cheerless that I am knowing
that I have been humiliated by Salwa! Ye that
have washed away your sins, godlike as ye are, I desire
that ye should instruct me in ascetic penance!
Oh, let mercy be shown to me!’ Thus addressed,
that sage then comforted the maiden by examples and
reasons borrowed from the scriptures. And having
consoled her thus, he promised, with the other Brahmanas,
to do what she desired.’”